As countries scrimmage in Manchester for the World Games this week, it’s been a long couple of days for one team in particular. The Iroquois Nationals have yet to take flight. Their Visas aren’t being recognized by the US Government (they have to fly out of USA) for travel to the games. The Independent is one of the many publications writing about the terrible situation.

When young warriors of the Native American Iroquois tribe gathered for lacrosse games hundreds of years ago, they faced a truly Herculean test of stamina. Long before it became an hour-long game for 20 players, lacrosse was a mammoth team sport with hundreds of participants battling it out on a pitch that could be anything up to a mile long, sometimes for three days straight. As a result the Iroquois, who along with the Huron helped invent lacrosse, know a thing or two about playing the long game.

Despite their reputation for astonishing endurance, the tribe’s current crop of lacrosse players appear to have come up against two immovable objects: the bureaucratic might of the Home Office and the US State Department.